George Steinbrenner in his day would sometimes get tired of firing managers and criticizing the team and the manager so on certain days he would attack the hitting coach.  Some would laugh or roll their eyes but if you look at the Mets lineup from top to bottom this team offensively is just not producing.  They have been horrible in the clutch since the middle of 2007 which is when HoJo took over as the hitting coach.  Look at Jason Bay as the latest victim of Howard Johnson.  Bay was not on this team in 2007, 2008 and 2009.  Bay is and always will be a streaky hitter but he has produced for his team over the years.  Bay joins the Mets and as of this writing he has not hit more than 1 home run.  Now sure Citi Field has robbed him of a few but what about on the road in smaller parks like Citizens Bank Park?  The frustrating thing about the Mets offense is that they are getting on base, in fact a couple of season’s ago they had as many hits as the Phillies but they cannot drive in runs.  This team in 2006 was very clutch, at least up to the NLCS.  In the beginning of 2007 they weren’t getting on base much but were scoring and driving in runs but for some reason the team freaked out, fired Rick Down and promoted HoJo as the hitting coach.

HoJo also for some reason last year decided to screw around with Wright’s swing.  Wright was a .300+ hitter who before last year hit 30 or more home runs and drove in well over 100 RBI’s.  2009 saw a very big decline for Wright.  Part of that decline was aided by the lack of good hitters hitting in front of and behind him.  Can anyone really defend making Wright change his swing?  I guess HoJo never heard of the old saying “if ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  I also cannot understand why HoJo doesn’t work more with Wright on going back to his old swing.  Do your job, get out the game footage and sit David down and watch the old footage.  I never really understood why the Mets went with HoJo as the hitting coach.  I’m not saying that HoJo was not a horrible hitter but he was not the greatest.  His career average is just .249.

Don’t forget that HoJo before coming up to the big leagues as a coach was a manager in the farm system.  He was for the most part a very unsuccessful manager.  It is worth noting that HoJo was David’s manager when Wright was in Triple A.  One of the reasons why I think HoJo has kept his job is that he’s latched onto David Wright.  It’s no secret that Wright and HoJo are friends off the field.

Dan Warthen as the pitching coach was not a move I liked.  I thought Peterson was a good pitching coach.  Granted he was out there sometimes.  I’m still trying to understand his interview that he did the day he was fired.  In all seriousness Peterson was able to work with these pitchers not just on mechanics and physical stuff but on an emotional level.  In 2007 Ollie won 15 games as did Maine.  Somehow he was able to get through to Oliver Perez, something that neither Warthen nor Ollie’s other coaches have been successful at.  Under Warthen these guys have regressed.  Also under Warthen the entire staff has lost their velocity and that is really what concerns me.  How can an entire pitching staff’s velocity go down in 1 season?  It has to be something that is unprecedented in baseball, just has to be.  The lack of velocity has hurt these pitchers, especially Oliver Perez.  Perez was always a sloppy pitcher, in fact the phrase “better to be lucky than good” sometimes could have been applied to Ollie in the past.  The one thing Ollie had going for him was his velocity.  The many mistakes he would make would not always hurt him as batters couldn’t catch up to his fastball and when he mixed in his changeup he was effective.  Ollie used to average 94-95, now he’s lucky to get to 90.  Maine comes to mind as well as a pitcher whose velocity has gone away and that came back to hurt him in the earlier games this season.

Warthen has also done his fair share of tinkering with his players.  John Maine’s delivery was changed and it hurt him his first few starts.  Since going back to his original delivery he has improved in every appearance up until this past Saturday.  I don’t know what Warthen was attempting with making Maine be a different pitcher as it obviously did not work.  Maine decided on his own that his new delivery was not working and that he would go back to his original one.  Why didn’t the pitching coach think about that?

After the 2009 season Dan Warthen was quick to blame the catchers for all the trouble the pitchers had last year.  I thought it was unprofessional then and I still do.  He was also wrong!  Yes Santos was a young catcher who was still learning his craft but now the Mets have 2 excellent catchers in Rod Barajas and Henry Blanco.  Both catchers call a great game and have been effective so far for the Mets.  Unfortunately the Mets pitching staff still leads the majors in walks!  For the last 2 seasons Mets pitching has allowed 24 walks to the opposing pitcher!  This falls squarely on the shoulders of the pitching coach.  This guy was a walk machine as a player and now he’s teaching our pitchers on how to walk the park.

Now firing these guys is not the complete answer to turning this franchise around but it’s a start.  I don’t relish seeing these guys go, it’s tough to lose your job, they have families to support but this is the business they have chosen.  Probably harder to fire Howard Johnson considering his history with the franchise but if the Mets want to win they’re going to have to make the tough choices and say goodbye to Warthen and HoJo.

1. What was your favorite Mets moment?

In this clip, Rick discusses his friendship with Willie Randolph, and how special it was to get within one out of the World Series with a rotation comprised of Tom Glavine, Steve Trachsel, John Maine, and Oliver Perez, who was called up from AAA and ultimately found himself pitching in game seven of the NLCS.

2. Is their an optimal number of innings pitched or a minimum body of work that a young pitcher should have before being promoted to the Major Leagues?

Rick explains how economics figures into the equation, but ultimately if a prospect is obviously better than someone already on the Major League roster, why hold him back?

3. Why are pitch counts so important?

Rick explains why it is essential to monitor a pitcher’s pitch counts, and that besides a decline in performance it’s also a matter of preventing injuries.

4. I assume you’re familiar with the Verducci Effect, what are your thoughts on it?

Rick totally shocked me when I learned that it was he who told Tom Verducci about the effects of increasing a pitchers workload too fast in his formative years.

I will post the rest of my interview with former Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson later this week.

We congratulate Rick and wish him the best of luck with his new team the Milwaukee Brewers. He inherits a staff with a great young starter in Yovani Gallardo, but also a staff with many challenges as well.

We are pleased to announce that Rick has agreed to periodically share his unique perspectives on pitching and baseball, as a contributing writer for Mets Merized Online. We are honored to have him share his insights with our readers.

Finally, for all of you aspiring pitchers out there, check out 3PSports.com to learn more about the importance of performance based behaviors and how they can help you improve your performance and minimize injuries.

Rick Peterson is one of the most foremost experts in the country when it comes to peak performance coaching. He has dedicated a lifetime to developing a unique approach to coaching, and the results have been quite dramatic and speak for themselves.

While with Oakland, his staff led the American League in ERA for two years, posting a 3.63 in 2003 and 3.58 in 2002. Under his guidance, the A’s finished in the top three in ERA from 1999-2003. Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mark Mulder all flourished under his tutelage. Each became a 20-game winner and Zito captured the 2002 American League Cy Young Award. We watched Mike Pelfrey and John Maine emerge as Mets starters under his guidance, and even Oliver Perez delivered his best performance while Rick was the Mets pitching coach.

Rick was kind enough to answer several general questions about baseball, his time with the Mets, Scott Kazmir, the rise in pitching related injuries, his future, pitch counts, and the Peterson Effect which I know you will all get a kick out of.

Before I get to those other questions, I wanted to know more about 3P Sports and asked Rick to tell me how it all came about. I found his story to be quite compelling and it revealed a side about Rick that most Mets fans probably didn’t know.

Besides learning that he was a New Jersey native, had a degree in Psychology, and was an accomplished oil painter, what really stands out the most is how dedicated he is to genuinely wanting to help baseball players prolong their careers by minimizing injuries and enhancing their performance. His panel of experts at 3P Sports includes Al Leiter, Tom Glavine, Jim Duquette and even one of the most respected and well known orthopedic surgeons in the world, Dr. James Andrews. Interestingly enough is the fact that Rick Peterson was the first person to walk through the doors of Dr. Andrew’s American Sports Medicine Institute, so many years ago.

In this audio clip, Rick explains how 3P Sports evolved from just an idea into what it is today. He also explains the principles of the Peak, Performance, Pitching program. 

In the next part of my interview, we tackle a host of questions on baseball, the Mets and pitching in general. Here is a sneak preview where I asked Rick about pitch counts.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2 of my interview with former Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson. Listen to us discuss Rick’s favorite Mets moment, Scott Kazmir, innings pitched, and the Verducci Effect.

“How did he know that my knee hurts?” Santana said before the Mets played the Orioles. “That’s the question that I have. You guys tell me how did he find that out? Because it is crazy. Not even the trainers know. Not even me. I didn’t know my knee hurts. Just put it that way.”

Santana said his location was the only problem he experienced while surrendering a career-high nine runs in a 15-0 loss to the Yankees on Sunday. Santana, who had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in the knee last October, made no mention of his knee bothering him Sunday.

But Peterson, said he has heard the knee is a factor and is a big reason why Santana has a 6.50 ERA over his past six starts.

Peterson called Santana’s health “a major concern” for the Mets.

“I know it’s been reported that he’s had a blister on his middle finger, and that certainly can be a major, major detriment for a pitcher,” Peterson told ESPN 1050′s Brandon Tierney this morning. “And then there’s been some rumors that you hear about his knee being a little bit bothersome right now.

“And when that starts to happen, when you’ve got a finger issue and you have that knee issue like he had before, you really start to get a little concerned about that.”

The Mets strongly denied Peterson’s assertion that Santana’s knee is bothering him, saying the only issues he is having are related to the blisters and perhaps the back soreness that hit him last month.

“How would Rick Peterson know what’s going on with the Mets?” a team official said angrily.

Wow, maybe someone should give Peterson a job so that he’d stop chirping so much…